Syrian Civil War

The Syrian Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in Syria which began on 15 March 2011 during the Arab Spring. The civil war initially started out as a series of pro-democracy protests which were violently suppressed by President Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist dictatorship, leading to defectors from the Syrian Arab Army allying with protesters and forming the Free Syrian Army to violently overthrow Assad's regime. The violence, initially confined to Damascus and Aleppo, soon became a sectarian conflict as mostly Sunni Syrian Opposition groups, al-Qaeda-backed Salafi jihadist groups, the Syrian Arab Army and its allied nations and militias, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and the Islamic State caliphate battled for control of a country which soon fell into anarchy as rival factions carved out territories for themselves. The Syrian government, backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, was able to turn the tide of the war on 22 December 2016 by capturing the rebel stronghold of Aleppo, while, in the northeast, the US-backed Kurdish and Arab SDF forces battled the powerful Islamic State and recaptured all of its territories by 23 March 2019. These developments confined the remnants of the Free Syrian Army and the jihadist forces to Idlib Governorate and other regions along the Turkish border, while the SDF occupied al-Hasakah Governorate and parts of Deir ez-Zor Governorate and Raqqa Governorate in the northeast and the Syrian government controlled the rest of Syria. On 9 October 2019, Turkey launched a military invasion of Syria, "Operation Peace Spring", to destroy the SDF (which was allied to the Kurdish PKK terrorist group in Turkey) and assist the pro-Turkey Syrian National Army faction of the FSA. By then, peace talks had made progress, and the Syrian Civil War drew closer to its end as the Syrian government controlled 65% of the country by 31 October 2019 and 25% was controlled by the SDF, which announced its plans to merge into the Syrian Arab Army after a political agreement was signed. By March 2019, a total of 570,000 people had died in the Syrian Civil War, while 7,600,000 civilians were internally displaced and 5,116,097 forced to flee the country.

Background
In 2000, following the death of President Hafez al-Assad, his British-educated son Bashar al-Assad succeeded him as head of the Ba'athist regime. The implementation of free market policies by the Syrian government led to a significant increase in socioeconomic inequality, and high youth unemployment rates, high poverty rates in cities such as Daraa and Homs and among conservative Sunnis, a historically-intense drought from 2006 to 2011, and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly led to growing discontent with the Syrian government. In 2011, the Arab Spring protest movement spread across the Arab World, and, in January 2011, minor protests began to take place in Syria. These transformed into massive protests in March, and the protests met with police and military violence, massive arrests, brutal crackdowns, and censorship. By the end of April, the Syrian Arab Army was deployed to suppress the protests, and, by 17 August 2011, 2,154 civilians and 500 soldiers had been killed, 1,857 security forces and thousands of protesters injured, and 12,617 protesters arrested. On 29 July 2011, army defectors founded the Free Syrian Army, and the protests transitioned into an armed insurgency.

Early insurgency
By September 2011, the FSA was engaged in an active insurgency campaign in many parts of Syria, and, from 27 September to 1 October, Syrian government forces launched an offensive on the rebel base of al-Rastan, forcing the FSA leadership to flee to Turkey and the FSA soldiers to Homs. By October, the Turkish government allowed the FSA leadership to operate its command and headquarters from Hatay, and, that same month, Syrian rebels captured most of Idlib city. The Syrian government, seeking to sabotage the rebel cause, released its Islamist prisoners and provided them with arms in order to make itself the least bad choice for the international community. In November 2011, major street fighting broke out between the army and the rebels in Homs, and the army failed to quell the unrest. In January 2012, the Syrian government began to use large-scale artillery operations against the insurgency, indiscriminately shelling Homs. That same month, clashes erupted around Damascus, and, on 18 January, the FSA took control of Zabadani. On 5 February, Opposition forces gained control of the town of Rastan and the Damascus suburbs, endangering the capital. At the same time, the Syrian military launched a counteroffensive to retake rebel-held strongholds in Homs, and, by the end of March, the army was in control of 70% of the city. By 14 March, Syrian troops ousted the rebels from Idlib after days of fighting.

2012-2013 escalation
From April to May 2012, the United Nations mediated a ceasefire between the government and the rebels,  but the summary execution of 108 people at Houla on 25 May 2012 led to the ceasefire collapsing. On 1 June 2012, Assad swore to crush the anti-government uprising, and the conflict began moving into Damascus and Aleppo. By July, the rebels had taken Qusayr in Homs Governorate and Saraqeb in Idlib Governorate, and, on 18 July, Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Defense Minister Hasan Turkmani, and President al-Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat were killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus. From the winter of 2012 to the spring of 2013, the rebels advanced on all fronts. In October 2012, the rebels took Maarat al-Numan in Idlib, and they also threatened Damascus by taking Douma. An Eid ceasefire in October quickly collapsed, and the Syrian government decided to expand its bombing campaign in Damascus. On 22 November, the rebels took Mayadin in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and, in December, the FSA captured the Yarmouk neighborhood and several Palestinian refugee camps in Damascus after pushing out the PFLP-GC fighters defending the area. Three-quarters of Hama Governorate was overwhelmed by the rebels, followed by the town of Harem in Idlib.

At the same time, the Islamist militants released by the Syrian government began to grow in power, with al-Qaeda establishing the al-Nusra Front as its affiliate in Syria. On 11 January 2013, al-Nusra captured the Taftanaz air base in Idlib Governorate after weeks of fighting, capturing a game-changing number of weapons. On 11 February, they captured al-Thawrah and the Tabqa Dam in Raqqa Governorate, and they also took Shaddadi in al-Hasakah Governorate on the Iraqi border. On 2 March 2013, clashes erupted between the Syrian Army and rebels in Raqqa itself, and, on 3 March, the rebels freed the prisoners of Raqqa's central prison. At the same time, 200 rebels and government soldiers were killed during fighting for the Khan al-Asal police academy in Aleppo. By 6 March, Raqqa was in al-Nusra's hands, making it the first provincial capital to be lost by the Syrian government. In April 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq militant group expanded into Syria and formed the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), which would go on to become a major faction in the war as thousands of Islamic militants and 80% of al-Nusra's foreign fighters joined its ranks. On 12 July 2013, the assassination of FSA commander Kamal Hamami by ISIL led to war between the two factions. Meanwhile, the Kurdish YPG forces took Ras al-Ayn from al-Nusra Front and clashed with government and Islamist forces in northeastern Syria; the Islamists committed grave war crimes against Kurdish civilians in northern Syria.

On 22 July 2013, the rebels seized the western Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Asal, the government's last stronghold in western Aleppo Governorate. On 25 July, the SAA recaptured al-Sukhnah from al-Nusra, and it repelled a rebel offensive into Latakia Governorate in August. On 21 August 2013, the Syrian government carried out a chemical attack on the Ghouta region of the Damascus countryside, gassing thousands of people to death in a horrific atrocity. While the government took Ariha on 3 September, the rebels cut off the government's last supply route into Aleppo with the capture of Khanasir on 26 August. On 8 September, al-Nusra militants captured the Christian town of Maaloula, but it was recaptured by the SAA shortly after. On 18 September, ISIL took Azaz from the FSA. On 3 October, the SAA recaptured Khanasir from the rebels, and it reopened its supply routes into Aleppo on 7 October. In mid-October, rebels captured large portions of Deir ez-Zor city. That same month, the government launched offensives against the rebels in Damascus and Aleppo, turning the tide of the Battle of Aleppo. On 2 December, the FSA retook Maaloula and kidnapped 12 nuns, taking them to Yabroud. The US and Britain, who had been covertly supporting the FSA in a train-and-equip program, cut off all non-lethal aid to the FSA, having grown concerned about these supplies falling into the hands of the Islamist opposition factions.